Sunday, August 31, 2014

Venice 71: Film Festival – Berlluscone.
Una Storia Siciliana – Franco Maresco. Directed by Franco Maresco and staring Ciccio
Mira, Salvatore De Castro, Vittorio Ricciardi, Tatti Sanguineti, Salvatore
Ficarra and Valentino Picone, the film critic Tatti Sanguineti arrives in
Palermo to find out what has happened to Franco Maresco’s unfinished movie:
Belluscone. Una storia siciliana. A film that was supposed to tell the story of
the unique relationship between Berlusconi and Sicily through the misadventures
of the Palermitan impresario of Neapolitan “neomelodic” singers and organizer
of street festivals, Ciccio Mira, an undaunted supporter of Berlusconi,
nostalgic for the old days’ Mafia— and two artists in his stable, Erik and Vittorio
Ricciardi, who perform in the squares of Palermo a song entitled “Vorrei
conoscere Berlusconi” (“I Want to Meet Berlusconi”). The film focuses on three
failures: the political and human one of a Berlusconi now on the wane; that of
the unfortunate and “slapdash” Ciccio Mira, rooted in an old but tenacious
culture; and finally, the artistic one of the director, who chooses to
disappear after realizing that tilting at political windmills is pointless, in
a country that has long identified with Berlusconian “culture” and probably
continues to do so.